Bhakti the Path of Love

Love is something that cannot be purchased, cannot be bought, cannot be traded, cannot be owned. You can say that you love someone because they love you, because you appreciate them, but deep inside love is more than something that is a feeling you have about someone. Love is a state of being. It is your natural state of being.

Love is a deep and passionate thing. It comes to you when you least expect it and it flies away from you when you become absorbed in yourself. Love is something freely given—given from your soul, given from your source, given because you are it. You have nothing to gain and nothing to lose; love is your state of being. Love, bliss, truth, this is your being, your way, your Dharma, and when you feel it, it rises to the surface out of you, and a warm feeling comes, a kind feeling; it’s something you want to share with someone else. So love always wants to be shared. Human beings can have many different types of experiences, many different types of motivations and feelings, but Paramapurusha, that divine Self, that divine core, has only one intention, and that is that all beings should come into Him—that that love that is that divinity, that it be shared with everyone, that everyone may experience the love, the truth that is their own inner essence.

So, when you align yourself with the divine, this intention becomes your intention, because it naturally flows out of the divine into you. You become a conduit of that love that seeks only that all beings should have opportunity to share this feeling of love, this experience of Self, the experience of the bliss of divine knowledge. Human beings may want many things, but when all the things that they desire are either fulfilled, or they become terribly wounded in the process of trying to fulfill them, then people tend to sink into themselves. And they begin to search for their own soul, for their own path to wholeness, for their own deep inner essence. And for some people, they call it knowledge; some people call it truth; some people call it love, bliss, Ananda.

When your path is through the heart, when your path is in your heart essence, in Bhakti, love becomes a prominent feeling. You love the beloved. You know the divine beloved as your most intimate associate, closer than any other to you, and you feel that love in your heart, whatever the name is that you hold for the God within, if it is Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Shiva, Divine Mother, Baba, whatever the name that you hold, you feel that connection, that love with the divine. And then that Bhakti...in that relationship of love, you begin to experience the wholeness, the completeness, the relationship of lover and beloved, where the love grows so deep there is no thought of two, there is only one.

And the joy of that love only wants to be shared, so the great Bhaktis write poetry, they dance Kirtan in the streets, they sing the name of the beloved. And when you truly fall in love with the divine, you begin to see that that beloved is everywhere, in everyone, in every blade of grass, in every flower, in the sky, in the sea, in the flowers, in the earth, in the people you meet, in the difficulties in life, and in the joys of life. The beloved abides all around you, and within you. And when you meet the beloved, when you discover the path to that beloved, you begin to uncover these mysteries. That one becomes visible to you, your eyes begin to open, and you see that that beloved is just near you, touching you, with you always. You see that you are never alone. Even in your hardest times, that beloved is close to you, always caring for you, guiding you. That Divine Mother, that Divine Father, that lover of your heart, is right near to you.​And sometimes you meet that beloved in a person, and you fall in love with that person. But whom do you love in that person? Do you not love the divine, the beloved of your heart, isn’t that the one that you’re loving so much in another person? That divine one has found a form for you and your heart has gone out and you are saying, “Oh, my loved one.” “My beloved husband,” “My beloved wife,” “My beloved lover,” “My beloved child,” “My beloved cat.”

The beloved takes many forms, and then as your heart opens the bird flies in the sky and lands nearby, and the beloved looks to you out of the eyes of a bird. And as your heart sinks into the mystery of love, you find that that divine one is really with you, all around you, and a world that was lifeless and dull is a world of magic, a world of vitality, filled with the beloved. And the food you eat isn’t simple food, it’s the body of the beloved. That which you drink is the form of the beloved flowing into you through the body, the body that belongs to the beloved. And even the thoughts in your mind, are they separate? No, they are a part of that flow of divine love. And when you begin to experience the beloved, when you are in the flow of Bhakti, you feel this shower of grace all around you, falling on you, and life becomes a magical flow of love.

You dance under the stars singing the name of your lord, feeling the beloved showering bliss upon you. The stars in the sky, the moon in the heavens... In those the beloved shines the light of truth and love into you, and through your own body, through your own mind, until there is nothing left outside of the beloved. Such is the path of Bhakti; such is the way of the heart. Such is the song sung on the wind. Such are the words, the poetry of love. Embrace the beloved. Embrace the love until there is only one: lover and beloved, forever united, surrendering, letting go, into love unconditional. You find the heart of yoga, you find the heart of your heart, you find the lord of all, and that lord lives within you and all around you. So awaken from your slumber, and see with eyes anew. Find your beloved. Let your heart open. This is the way of the heart, alright? Namaskar.